ON THE face of things, Venezuelans were simply voting for their mayors and local councillors on December 8th. But the opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, had called for a massive protest vote that he hoped would turn into a plebiscite on the erratic, economically incompetent and increasingly totalitarian rule of President Nicolás Maduro (pictured), the successor to the late Hugo Chávez. By that standard, Mr Capriles failed.

The opposition coalition, called the Democratic Unity alliance (MUD), made gains, especially in urban areas. The four biggest cities, including Caracas, now have opposition mayors. In all, the MUD won nine of the 23 state capitals. The most painful loss for the ruling Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) was Barinas, home of the Chávez family. But outside the main cities, the electoral map remains chavista red, a reflection of the government’s stranglehold on rural Venezuela, which has most of the 337 mayoralties.

Voters handed President Nicolás Maduro a tepid vote of support, as preliminary results showed his political allies winning a majority of mayoral seats nationwide.

Since taking the helm after the March death of Hugo Chávez, President Maduro’s tenure has been marred by claims of fraud, an ailing economy, an inflation rate of over 54 percent, and chronic shortages of consumer goods. His opponents cast Sunday’s municipal elections as a plebiscite on his presidency and attempts to preserve his predecessor’s socialist policies.

Partial results showed that the Maduro administration was set to win the majority of mayoral spots, passing the electoral “test” by much more than the razor-thin margin with which Maduro beat opposition foe Henrique Capriles in April. Voters gave the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allies more that 49 percent of the popular vote, compared to 42 percent for the opposition.

“It’s symbolic,” says Mariela Heny, a homemaker who lined up before sunrise Sunday ...Read More

NO ONE can really feel satisfied after Venezuela’s municipal elections on December 8th. Urban Venezuela is turning its back on the ‘socialist revolution’ of the late Hugo Chávez and his successor, President Nicolás Maduro (pictured). But polls that the opposition Democratic Unity (MUD) alliance had sought to turn into a plebiscite against the eight-month-old Maduro government have, in the short term at least, consolidated his grip on political power.

A total of 335 municipalities and two metropolitan districts were up for grabs in Sunday’s poll. In 2008, with Chávez at the height of his power, a divided opposition managed to hang on in just 15% of them. Its consolation prize that year was to seize metropolitan Caracas, but the punishment was severe. The government cut off central funding to mayor Antonio Ledezma, ejected him from city hall and transferred most of his powers to an unelected ‘chief of government’. It is ...Read More

The victory of Venezuela’s left in Sunday’s municipal elections suggests that voters are comfortable with their growing dependence on the government’s generosity. Opposition leaders must help Venezuelans overcome their addiction.

As of yesterday, President Nicolas Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela had captured a majority of the country’s municipalities – 234 out of 337 precincts — and had taken 44.2 percent of the vote versus the opposition’s 41 percent, with ballots still being counted.

Opposition candidates may have won key cities, including the municipality of Barinas — home of the late President Hugo Chavez. But for those who expected a major defeat for Maduro and his allies, the election should serve as an eye-opening experience. Political analyst Luis Vicente Leon put it bluntly in a Sunday night Twitter post: “The opposition showed growth compared with the previous election,” but it lacked enough votes to “‘punish’ Maduro’s administration.”

Nine months after his death, Venezuela’s ruling party is still running Hugo Chavez as its standard-bearer in upcoming municipal elections seen as an important test of strength for his lackluster successor Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuelans go back to the polls Sunday, for the first time since Maduro’s disputed election, to choose mayors and city council members in a country still unsettled by Chavez’s death March 5 of cancer.

“December 8 is the day of loyalty to Hugo Chavez, and we are going to go and vote,” roared Diosdado Cabello, leader of the governing United Socialist Party (PSUV), at a recent campaign rally.

Cabello then yielded the floor to a videotaped speech by the late president, a deeply polarizing populist who sought to carry out a socialist revolution during his 14-year rule over this oil-rich country.

“Chavez continues to be the calling card of the ruling party heading into December 8,” said political expert Nicmer Evans.

The tone of politics in Venezuela has only become rougher since the death eight months ago of socialist president Hugo Chavez, and the rhetoric is becoming even nastier with local elections looming.

Chavez made his international reputation through his own confrontational style and aggressive populism.

With the approaching December 8 local polls – to elect 340 mayors and 2,400 town councillors – seen as a referendum on the government, Chavez’s handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro, has used both word and deed to press its case against the opposition.

Maduro, 50, slams the opposition as “parasites,” “fascists” and “criminals” at every turn.

The opposition is hardly mild but has struggled to be heard amid the din made by the powerful, pro-government media bloc.

Venezuela’s political divisions have deepened since April 14, when Maduro narrowly beat opposition leader Henrique Capriles, 41, in a presidential election.

Venezuela’s legislature on Tuesday granted decree powers to President Nicolás Maduro, as the Chávez successor pledged to wage an “economic war” to battle inflation and shortages.

The president has said that among the first laws he will issue will be one to limit businesses’ profit margins to between 15 and 30 per cent and another to create a new state body to oversee dollar sales.

“Mission accomplished Commander Hugo Chávez. In your name, as president of the republic, I sign the execution of this enabling law,” Mr Maduro said from the presidential palace in Caracas. “Chávez lives, the fatherland continues.”

Although the president said he needed the powers to fix the economy and eradicate corruption, critics have accused him of amassing power ahead municipal elections on December 8. Mr Maduro’s opponents are casting the polls as a referendum on his mandate and ability to manage the economy.

Where is Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro taking his country? Clearly, it is radicalizing further and faster than under his predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

Exactly one month before the December 8 municipal elections, Maduro announced the “occupation” of the Daka chain of electronics stores and security forces proceeded to arrest several executives. A few days later he asked the “Bolivarian Militia” to take to the streets to hold back the “fascist right wing that wants to wage economic war on Venezuela.”

Next up, a promise to go after food, textile, footwear, toy, vehicle, and hardware stores–all of which he accuses of price gouging. He will soon have new tools to do so after the National Assembly grants him year-long emergency decree powers that he says are need to stamp out corruption.

Nationalizations and occupations are nothing new to Venezuela. Chávez often resorted to blaming the bourgeois when he needed to ...Read More

Venezuelan authorities ordered the arrest of a close aide to opposition leader Henrique Capriles and military agents removed documents, computers and cellphones from the man’s apartment Wednesday, the opposition said.

It called the action proof of a new wave of political repression.

Venezuela’s highest court, meanwhile, rejected Capriles’ bid to void the April 14 presidential election, which he narrowly lost to ruling party candidate Nicolas Maduro. It also fined Capriles $1,700 for what it called a “disrespectful” filing and asked the attorney general to prosecute the opposition leader for filing the petition.

The 12-party MUD opposition coalition did not elaborate on the government’s stated reason for issuing the arrest warrant for Oscar Lopez, the chief of staff to Capriles in the Miranda state governor’s office.

Maduro had announced earlier in the day that the government “today captured a chief of the corruption and of the mafias of the Venezuelan right.” He did not ...Read More

When the Venezuelan tyrant Hugo Chavez passed away back in March, one notably unctuous commemorative tribute came from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. “Although we have not agreed with all of the methods followed by his government, we have never doubted Hugo Chavez’s commitment to improving the lives of millions of his fellow countrymen,” the statement, carried on the website of the Carter Center, intoned. Carter then praised the “positive legacies” of a man famous for embracing genocidal dictators like Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, before ending with a vague plea to Chavez’s successors to forge a “new consensus” in taking the country forward.

Three months and one disputed election later, has Carter revised these views? As the Miami Herald’s Andres Oppenheimer discovered this week when he interviewed Carter, the answer is a resounding no.

“Would Carter now approve of the results of Venezuela’s April 14 elections, which according to the ...Read More

After nearly two tumultuous months, Venezuela‘s electoral council officially ratified Nicolás Maduro’s presidential victory yesterday. In announcing the results of an audit of April’s razor thin election results, council head Tibisay Lucena said the vote “accurately reflects the will of the [Venezuelan] people.”

But the decision will do little to quell the political crisis here as the country’s opposition now says it’s set to take its case before international courts.

“We first want to exhaust all local, institutional means,” says Gerardo Blyde, a member of the Democratic Unity Table (MUD), the political coalition contesting the results. “We’re waiting for a response to our complaints before going to bodies such as the Organization of American States (OAS).”

Claiming Mr. Maduro’s victory was fraught with fraud, Venezuela’s political opposition lodged complaints before the Supreme Court last month, demanding a new vote. Calls for international action could help to bolster MUD’s efforts at home; however, analysts say ...Read More

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski started a weekly Internet television program today, after alleging that the country’s television stations and newspapers are squeezing him out of their coverage.

It will be the first show hosted by a politician in the Latin American country since the late President Hugo Chavez canceled his Sunday show as he battled cancer.

“All of Us Are Venezuela” will run at 11 a.m. every Tuesday on Capriles’ website capriles.tv and will be interactive, the former presidential candidate said today. Today, the hour-long show was held in a studio where he fielded questions from national and international journalists.

Capriles was labeled a “fascist assassin” by state media following street disturbances after he lost an election in April to Chavez’s handpicked heir Nicolas Maduro by 1.5 percentage points. The government said the protests left nine people dead. The recent sale of private media such as television network Globovision and ...Read More

Nicolas Maduro, the former bus driver chosen by Hugo Chávez to lead Venezuela after his death, has been struggling to consolidate his position since being declared the victor in a questionable presidential election in April. With the economy stalling, inflation spiking and shortages spreading, the new president appears at a loss about how to respond, other than to blame domestic and foreign enemies. Nor has he been able to overcome a serious split in the Chavista movement between his own, Cuba-backed clique and another based in the military.

Perhaps most alarming for Mr. Maduro, an energized opposition has refused to accept the election outcome; its capable leader, Henrique Capriles, has been gaining sympathy around the region. The president of neighboring Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, met with Mr. Capriles on May 29, prompting paroxysms of rage from Mr. Maduro and his aides. Other Latin American governments, while avoiding a confrontation with Caracas, have made it clear they regard the new leader’s legitimacy as questionable; the regional group Unasur called ...Read More

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There are very real threats growing in the Western Hemisphere. We have to examine them, develop effective responses, and promote constructive alternatives. The battle begins with reliable information. The goal of IASW is to start the conversation in Washington, a bipartisan conversation that leads to developing a sensible policy that addresses the threat of narco-trafficking and hostile regimes in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and elsewhere.